The present disclosure relates to an electronic device to be used in combination with an image forming apparatus configured to adjust picture quality when outputting an image formed on a recording medium, and an image forming system including the electronic device and the image forming apparatus.
Some image forming apparatuses that output an image formed on a recording medium (sheet) are configured to adjust the picture quality of the original image (image data), to improve the appearance of the outputted image. For example, luminance and contrast are items to be adjusted through the picture quality adjustment, and when a color image is handled, for example chroma may also be adjusted. It is preferable to optimally adjust such items, with respect to the image that the user intends to output. To do so, it may be possible to actually output the image on the sheet, for the user to confirm the result, which, however, leads to waste of the sheets and time. Accordingly, it is preferable to display a preview of the content to be outputted. In this case, the user can visually confirm the preview image, before actually outputting the image formed on the sheet.
However, since the screen (display unit) provided in conventional image forming apparatuses is small, and only has low resolution, it is difficult to confirm the effect of the adjustment. Besides, a color display is unnecessary in the normal operation of the image forming apparatus, and therefore the display is often configured to display only a B/W image. In such a case, the preview display of a color image is unavailable, and consequently the effect of the adjustment of an item characteristic of the color image, such as chroma, is unable to be confirmed.
Accordingly, an image processing system, constituted of a combination of an image forming apparatus (image processing unit) and an electronic device (mobile terminal, smartphone, or the like) capable of displaying an image, has been developed. The image forming apparatus employed in such an image processing system is configured to display the detail of the adjustment on the screen, so as to allow the user to visually recognize, together with a marker (e.g., two-dimensional code) corresponding to the detail of the adjustment. On the part of the electronic device, an imaging unit is provided, so that by shooting the marker displayed on the screen of the image forming apparatus, the electronic device can recognize the detail of the adjustment. The electronic device possesses image data for confirming the effect of the picture adjustment (picture adjustment effect display data), apart from the image outputted by the image forming apparatus as above. Then the picture adjustment effect display data, reflecting the detail of the adjustment recognized as above, is displayed on the screen on the part of the electronic device, as the preview image.
Normally, the screen (display unit) incorporated in an electronic device, such as a smartphone, is configured to display color images in high resolution, and a desired portion of the displayed image can be easily enlarged. Thus, by the mentioned combination of the electronic device and the image processing unit, the user can easily recognize the effect of the picture quality adjustment, using the electronic device. In this case, further, the exchange of information between the image processing unit and the electronic device can be achieved simply by shooting the marker, which is quite easy to operate, and can be performed even when the image processing unit is not connected to a network.